Letter to the Editor
Polar bear shooting
Published Saturday, April 5, 2008
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To the editor:
Hunting and fishing is my life, so I am not anti-hunting, but this shooting of the polar bear disgusts me.
They purposely went after that bear to kill it and for no other reason. Let’s see, here is a bear charging him and he has time to shoot eight times and the bear was still 10 feet from him when he died. If this bear was charging him as he claims, it would of run over him before he could get off two shots.
Some people have the mentality that anything that moves out there has to be shot. Yes, we hunt for subsistence and that is important to us but it is also so nice just to sit on a hill or somewhere and watch animals without killing them. People like that spoil it for everyone. I have seen it too many times.
Most people would have got a lot of enjoyment just watching something like that polar bear and snapping a few pictures.
Community Discussion
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I think the mentality is that anything that moves out there AND IS LIKELY TO TRY TO EAT ME OR SOMEONE I KNOW needs to be dealt with.
True. "....dealt with..."
Your definition may differ from mine.
Mine, in this case, would include *NOT* chasing the thing for 3 miles, then flushing it from one side of an island directly toward the guy with the gun. That's not called "defense of life and property", that's called stalking.
It's a sad fact that people are unable to comprehend the difference between fear and respect. Fear was the decisive factor in killing that bear.
.....and that's reprehensible.
Since I wasn't there, I have to rely on the report in the News Miner. I won't presume to know what the hunters were thinking or feeling when they shot the bear.
However, as was pointed out, these men did stalk the bear three miles, and did employ flushing to herd the bear in range for one to shoot. Now I'm well aware that some Polar Bears in the past have been dispatched after they were caught stalking residents in some of our northern communities - but this instance seems to me to be the reverse.
I'm a little curious to know if left alone, this bear would have just moved right along out of the area.
It is tragic that the polar bear was killed. The men at the Fort did track it for three miles. I believe they would have tracked it for five miles, but were lucky and found it. They obviously thought it was a grizzly bear, as that is the only bear that would have been out then, and no one had ever seen or even thought of a polar bear on the Yukon Flats. 3 miles is NO DISTANCE for any bear to travel. That bear WOULD HAVE been back to the village to eat. It could have eaten a child or elder or who knows, possibly several. It HAD to be killed!! It happened at Fort Yukon, I guarantee it would/will happen in ANY village that a bear comes into at that time of year! I feel bad for the bear, but I do feel that the correct thing happened.
This horse has already been beat to death, let it go. Theres been more than enough Monday morning quarterbacking done on this topic.
I agree one hundred percent with the letter to the editor. This polar bear was an anomaly and should have been monitored by state or federal authorities. Maybe even trapped and relocated. There are too many people with the mentality that wild animals exist soley for humans to trap, hunt, kill, and eat. Shooting the bear would have been justified had it returned to the village and posed an obvious threat. For too many, the fact that it is a bear of any species is enough reason to pursue it and kill it. The state convicted and Anchorage man of killing a brown bear sow on the Kenai with an assault rifle. The perp was not able to convince the court that his life was endangered by the bear he gut shot and left to die. I hope most people think like me and would only kill a bear in season while hunting or when it was with no doubt attacking. The argument that the village perimeter needs to be secured from threats is silly. This is AK not New Jersey. While to some there appears to be no end to the numbers of wolves and bears in the state, I would caution that the same attitude was held long ago in the lower 48. I am Alaskan, I hunt , and I vote.
Polar bears are not the fuzzy little cubs you see on TV, people! They are dangerous killers and stalk humans. They have been known to break into houses on the North Slope to attack people.
Do you have any idea how fast a bear can cover 30 feet? I's amazing the man was able to kill the bear before it got him.
These men did what any responsible man would do - they went out to dispatch an animal that would very likely have killed a child if left to wander around the village.
I agree with Alaskacub. I also agree with blizzards remark on capture and removal. Why couldnt the bear be captured and taken home they do it on tv all the time. Yeah i know bears are extremely dangerous but the peolpe could of stayed in for awhile till the game wardens showed up and if the bear came a knockin then yeah shoot him
Of course a bear will charge you if you corner it. This guy was looking for a reason to kill the bear, tracking it for a few miles. If safety was a big concern, why wasn't the state notified? They probably could have transported the beast. It wasn't against the law and the guy wanted bear meat, fine. But, don't make it out as you were the lone hunter defending a village.
If you knew a known killer was three miles away from your home, wouldn't you want to do something about it? What if he'd been spotted in your neighborhood earlier that day?
Polar bears are extremely aggressive, and it simply isn't safe to have one that close to a large (relatively) human population. I'm all for protecting polar bears whenever possible, but this is one instance where the safety of human lives outweighs that of a single bear.
We're not talking about black bears here, or even grizzlies. Polar bears stalk and attack humans for no reason. They don't need to be cornered. These men WERE defending a village.
Tony - you've never lived in a village, have you? "the peolpe could of stayed in for awhile till the game wardens showed up and if the bear came a knockin then yeah shoot him" How long do you think it would take for a handful of people to walk around a village of 7-900 and warn everyone to stay indoors? Look up Fort Yukon in your phone directory and see how many families have phones. Any idea how long it would take a game warden to fly there from Fairbanks?
I have never lived in a village alaskaflower nor would i want to live in one but when the physco in my neighborhood thought getting drunk and shooting his gun off i did not track him down for three miles and corner him and shoot him. I also think word will get around the village pretty quick by phone or word of mouth. It was just alternate suggestion. Did the bear actualy stalk someone? Why could the guys that started to track him instead of following him they could of used that time to tell the rest of the village about the bear? I'm also sure the people of fort yukon have had to deal with other beasts of the woods do they just track and shoot all of them too. How long have you lived in a village? No i dont know how long it would take to get a tropper to fort yukon. But i am sure if a helicopter can get to anchorage in an hour it could get to fort yukon a little sooner. I think the folks in fort yukon would have been fine for that short of time after all they are some pretty resourceful folks. Thats just a guess maybe you could give me the exact time for the them to fly there in a helicopter cause i doubt in this type of emergency they would drive.
Some folks will never figure out what living a rural village is all about. These folks co-exist by relying on each other. There are bad apples in any group whether its a group of 10 or 900. But a 60 some odd year old man didn't do what he did as a prank, he did what needed to be done and since its the holier than thou Polar bear everyone is up in arms. The reality is that Predators are alive and healthy in the state of Alaska, theres no shortage of them and they are encroaching on society all the time. Look at all the DLP (Defense of Life and Property) bear kills last year in the interior alone. The Predator population is not hurting nor reaching near extinction in fact reports show that they are on the rise, these folks did what they did and its done....till the next bear wanders into the village in the coming months as they emerge from dens. Give it a rest already. I can tell you that if I thought a truly dangerous animal (which a polar bear is) was in my neighborhood and might snatch up my son or one of hi slittle buddies while they were playing catch outside, I too would rather hunt it down if I knew exactly where it was and dispatch the threat as opposed to having a crying neighbor bang on my door to do something when its too late. These things look cuddly and loving in photos, or at the zoo, but thats as far as the innocence goes, they are a primo predator at the top of the food chain, folks need to not forget that. Its not about killing things just to kill them , its having the sense to know when something needs to be done and making the decision to do it for the safety of all. This is a trait that many in our society lack today and prefer to put the responsibility on state and government cuz then its okay and they dont have to carry any burdens or do any work.
Alaskaflower it was said that they suspected the bear to be a grizzly the entire time they were tracking it. If I see a moose in my yard today eating last years flowers should I track it and shoot it because it will be back to visit and may be a potential harm to my children or pets playing outside.
danzop, get real. A moose, while extremely dangerous and faster than one would think, most times will not attack without reason. It also does not consider you or your family food. It is not a meat eater.
Now, I lived/worked for ten years for half the year at Fort Yukon. I currently live/work for a little less than half the year in Galena. We also use helicopters. It would take the troopers around an hour and a half of flying time to Ft Yukon from Fbks. After mobilization, which would probably take several hours they could possibly respond within 6 or 8 hours. Normally, especially if it had been a grizzly or black bear, no one would have even known this had happened. It would have been a non-story. Grizzly bears at this time of year are hungry and would be dispatched as soon as they could be found if they were within this close to the village. It would be foolish NOT to do that!! As far as shooting them with tranquilzers and relocating them...I wish a trooper would come on and address this issue in the newspaper. This issue needs to be put to rest, and life will surely go on. While this is tragic, it should have been a non-issue, other than to tell tales of when a polar bear came down into the Yukon Flats. It could be quite a story that elders could tell the youngsters about for generations to come. Please, let this be over with!
alaskaflower - slight correction for you. You said, "Polar bears stalk and attack humans for no reason." Actually, they do it for a reason -- food. To the polar bear, a human is just another food source. They are the only predator known to consistently hunt humans for food.
I live in Two Rivers, where the moose outnumber people by a wide margin and where problems with wolves and bears are not uncommon. For the most part, I ignore them because clashes are unusual. (And, often the person's fault.) I keep an eye on them and give them plenty of space when I'm aware of them but otherwise I let them go about their business while I go about mine.
The powerlines, with it's short willow saplings, is on the backside of my property. This tends to keep the moose out of my yard and away from the road. I haven't planted moose bait (excuse me, a garden) lately but prefer to keep it far enough from the house to prevent run-ins. I don't leave garbage laying around and don't leave dog food outside. The worst risk I have is sunflower and thistle seeds in the bird and squirrel feeders.
Truthfully, the worst problem in this neighborhood is loose and stray dogs. However, my attitude would change drastically if there was a polar bear around.
Wow this isnt very good, if i dont stop hearing about this i might just become over stressed
It doesn't matter what kind of bear they thought it was...
If it's a grizzly up this early, it got up because it was STARVING and was going to eat whatever it could find. When bears wake from hibernation is when they are most desperate and dangerous.
the fact that it wasn't all skinny and gaunt (for a bear) was an anomaly, just as the very presence of the bear was an anomaly.
So, two options as to what it could be.
A> a grizz that woke up from a long sleep and needs a meal
B> a polar bear, known to stalk and eat people
Yeah, it would have been responsible to just forget it was ever there. Right. People are too used to the ideas of bears in zoos and don't realize they'd eat you in a heartbeat.
Thomas - there's grizzlies in this area, probably awake and looking for food right now. Fortunately, most grizzlies instinctively avoid human contact, unless they've come to equate human activity with easy food. All too often this is because people have left out unsecured garbage and dog food.
I agree that a habituated bear probably needs to be put down but people need to realize they, or their neighbors, are contributing to the problem when it comes to grizzly and black bears.
Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere that has polar bears without the landlubber's equivalent of a shark cage.
Fort Yukon ALASKAN's: How did the polar bear taste? I have been looking for something to eat ever since I used my food money to pay for my heating bill.
my dad said that when he was in Greenland, he was on a nature hike with his buddies. They saw evidence of a polar bear and my dads exact words were "We ran as fast as we could for more than a mile, to get back to base, we were very scared!"
the feds took all the meat from the guy that shot it. what a bummer. personally i'm sick and tired of hearing about this. Get a life, get over it, it happened if another comes into my town you better bet i'll be on that hunt to protect my livelyhood. make your laws and rules about how we should live, i'll be that law breaker that breaks those stupid laws that doesn't need to exist in the bush. GET OVER IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks' Ted solomon, FYU
YouTube - Polar bears and dogs playing. Go to this site to view for yourselves how dangerousssssssss all the polar bears are.... They weren't trained in a zoo either. Nor was it trick photography. In the Google search engine type in for yourselves and view the video. I am not saying this video applies to all the polar bears in the world but its an interesting video non the less... I'll put my bullet-proof vest on for the snipers that lay in the wood pile,fire when ready..
Hey Ted Solomon Ever live someplace out of the bush? How about out of the state? I once lived for three years in eastern New Mexico and suffered soul death. Everything natural had been taken out of the land. The only game left was jackrabbits and coyotes. This is the same land that 100 years earlier was home to the largest bison herd in North America. A place that was home to pronghorn, elk, wolves, grizzly bears and more. It did not take long for people to take the wild out of that place. Do you and the other quick to shoot people understand what you are doing to AK? There is nothing special that is going prevent turning this place into another sterilized human environment. Why can't you use some common sense and judgement when you decide an animal needs to die because it might be a threat? I don't expect anything people that think like me will say can change your values. But I would like you to know that I once thought like you do.
Hey Ted, this is John, the big long hair dude that worked with Bill out at the BLM station in the 90s. I know you guys arent just out to kill everything that moves, but, I also know that the bear had to go. If it was a Grizz, it had to go. As it turned out, it was a white bear, but, hey, that is more reason it could not be hunting/eating in the village. I am out in Galena now, but think of you guys alot. That was a great ten years of my life, and I miss getting up there. I am glad ya'll got that bear before it got someone in town, and all these people that are bellyaching about it have no idea how things really are in the bush. Take care man, and hope ya'll are having a good spring. One of these days maybe I can get up there on a fire, or maybe you might get out to Galena, but take care dude.
Leave Britney alone, eh, Ted?
a village boy can't survive ? hey i'm still living!!!! bring on all your politics blah blah bla wa wa wa losers!